Home secretary slaps gag on MI5’s 7/7 ‘failures’

Intelligence files on contacts between the 7/7 gang's ringleader and a known Islamic extremist are withheld from the inquest

MI5's files on contacts between the July 7 bombers are withheld from the public inquest (AP)

Theresa May, the home secretary, and the police have issued secret “gagging orders” to prevent the disclosure at the public inquest into the July 7 terrorist attacks in London of secret intelligence showing how MI5 could have prevented them.

One gagging order, from West Yorkshire police, seeks to withhold intelligence files on contacts between the 7/7 gang’s ringleader, Mohammad Sidique Khan, and a known Islamist extremist in 2001 and 2003.

Two other orders, signed by May, include minutes of the executive liaison group, a secret committee of MI5 and police counterterrorism officials that oversees covert investigations.

The files relate to a 2004 surveillance operation in which Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, a second suicide bomber, were seen meeting members of another terrorist cell.

Other documents May wants withheld are a description of “technical operations”, thought to include eavesdropping, and quarterly summaries of all MI5 inquiries into Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups